film studies homework

Film Studies Unit 2b - Documentary

Week 1 -unit overview and key theories, lesson powerpoint.

The powerpoint used in this week 's lessons is to the right.  You can look through this on this page or you can download it to your computer.

Scroll down for lesson resources and homework details.

Lesson Content

This week's lessons covered the following key areas:

Unit overview

Documentary overview

Michael Moore's Theory

Kim Longinottos' Theory

Scroll down the page for information on the homework task and resources used in the lessons.

Homework 

Watch a documentary film of your choice.  Use the worksheet (linked below) to take notes of how typical this film is of the documentary genre and whether it conforms to the ideas of Michael Moore or Kim Longinotto. Be prepared to feedback in your next lesson.

Lesson Resources

Techniques of documentary film.

A list of the commonly used techniques in documentary film (with explanations)

Documentary Research Worksheet

Use this worksheet to help you take notes on the film you watch for your homework task.

Back to Unit Hub

Go to week 2.

Intro to Film Studies: Five Elements of Film

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Distance learning resources for media and film studies.

Hints and tips - 5 minute read

This blog was originally published on 16 April 2020

In this blog I’ll be highlighting some online media and film resources that might be useful to support distance learning activities.

GCSE Media Studies resources

Our website has guides and factsheets which students can access covering a number of exam topics including:

• The Lego Movie film
• The Lego Movie video game

We also have downloadable student worksheets on the music topic and to support students with preliminary activities for the NEA .

BBC Bitesize covers all nine of the media forms and the key areas of the media theoretical framework. The Coombe Media & Film Studies YouTube channel has some really helpful revision videos for both GCSE Media papers.

A Level Media Studies resources

We have factsheets on the set film , radio and video game products for the Media Industries and Audiences topic.

There is a factsheet on the required academic ideas and arguments, and a resource showing how they can be applied to LFTV Drama.

We also have a range of student worksheets and activities accompanying our delivery guides for the news and LFTV drama topics.

The essential media theory website has a number of resources and worksheets focused on the set media theorists. Crash Course have a Media Literacy playlist which covers relevant topics including media ownership and media influence.

The BBC’s Media Show podcast and the Media section of The Guardian website are both good ways for students to keep up to date with key media issues. Radio 4’s Thinking Outside the Boxset series is a useful look at the impact of new technologies on narrative and audiences for television drama.

The Media Insider YouTube channel covers lots of key concepts for both GCSE and A Level Media Studies. The Guardian Education Centre has some really useful resources and suggested activities for teaching news media.

A Level Film Studies resources

We have a range of delivery guides which include suggested activities and key information for all the exam topics. There is also a guide to the European Film Movements and downloadable student worksheets for the Contemporary British and US Film topic.

The Unspooled podcast has episodes focusing on a number of the set films including Do the Right Thing, Vertigo and Sunrise. Cinephilia & Beyond is a good source of articles, interviews and resources on a range of film topics covering some set films. It also includes a section on short films which may be useful for students completing research for the NEA.

No Film School have a YouTube playlist of video essays covering topics including the French New Wave and German Expressionism .

Crash Course is also a useful source of video guides for A Level Film Studies with YouTube playlists on Film History , Film Production and Film Criticism looking at a number of key concepts, skills and set films.

BBC iPlayer’s Focus on Film section includes Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema series , interviews with the directors of a number of set films, and the Inside Cinema series of short films looking at different movie tropes.

The Business of Film Radio 4 documentary series covers a range of issues in film production and may also be useful for A Level Media students too.

The Yale Film Analysis Guide is really helpful for developing students’ understanding of the micro-elements of film form, and would also be useful for A Level Media students looking at media language in television drama and music videos. Film Sound is a useful source of explanations of a wide range of sound techniques.

Developing practical skills

To help Media and Film students develop their understanding of practical skills BBC Academy and Vimeo's Video School both have lots of useful guides. RocketJump Film School has a series of playlists covering different elements of film production and includes helpful guides to a range of techniques.

Indie Film Hustle have lots of blogs on practical techniques and key filmmakers and film movements. Screen Skills have a range of job profiles and information to help students research potential career paths.

General media and film resources

For more general activities both Into Film and Film Education have a wide range of guides and suggested tasks. The BBFC website has a student guide and range of activities (including rate your own trailer!) which will help students understand film regulation.

Future Learn have a number of online courses which could be used as independent learning or transition projects. Their courses include Film Distribution , Gender Representation in the Media  and Games Development Careers .

There are lots of online platforms, apps and free to download software which students can use to develop their media production skills. Options for image editing include:

https://www.gimp.org/ https://www.photopea.com/ https://glimpse-editor.org/ https://www.getpaint.net/ https://pixlr.com/

Stay connected

Let us know if you can add any suggested distance learning resources to the comments section below. If you have any questions please do email us at [email protected] or call us 01223 553998. You can also follow and tweet us @OCR_Media_Film where we’ll be sharing any other useful resources we come across.

About the author

John Hibbert – Media and Film Studies Subject Advisor John Hibbert has worked at OCR since April 2018 as Subject Advisor for Media and Film Studies. Prior to joining OCR John taught a range of Media and Film Studies qualifications in secondary schools, and was a head of department for the last eight years. Predictably, in his spare time he is a keen filmgoer, and in addition enjoys reading and miserable indie music.

By the same author

• Assessing the Media Studies NEA component at GCSE and A Level
• A Level Media Studies - Get smart with academic ideas and arguments

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Film Studies

Film Studies is a GCSE that pupils study over two years through WJEC. Film Studies provides students with the opportunity to specialise in studying specifically film through a series of assignments that result in a piece of practical film making and two exams, taken at the end of the course.

Students complete controlled assessment, worth 50 % of the final GCSE. This area will take up the first year of study in Year 10 and encompasses the following areas:

Introductory assignment: Exploring a film of students’ choice. Pupils will be taught the micro features of film language and then use these skills to explore an extract from a film of their choice. Students will be taught to write concisely as there is a word limit of 350 – 750 words.

The second assignment requires students to create a pitch for an imaginary film and then use it as the basis for preproduction tasks such as a storyboard and script. Students will then produce one of the following: a short sequence from the film; home page and linked page; a press pack for the new film. Students may work collaboratively on this but must be able to provide evidence of their input. Students must then evaluate their work drawing on film language, film organisations and audiences.

In Year 11 students will study Superhero films and complete an exam lasting one and a half hours. Students will be shown an extract from a Super Hero film and be expected to respond to it via a series of questions. The exam will also include questions that require a creative and design-based response. They will also study one film outside of Hollywood for their second exam, this lasts for one hour. Films that may be studied for this exam are: Amélie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, France/Germany, 2001), Bend It Like Beckham (Gurinder Chadha, UK/Germany/US, 2002), The Boy in Striped Pyjamas (Mark Herman, UK/USA, 2008), The Devil’s Backbone (Guillermo del Toro, Mexico/Spain, 2001), Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Parronaud, France, 2007), Ratcatcher (Lynne Ramsay, UK/France, 1999), Rabbit-Proof Fence (Phillip Noyce, Australia, 2002), Tsotsi (Gavin Hood, South Africa/UK, 2005), The Wave (Dennis Gansel, Germany, 2008), Yasmin (Kenneth Glenaan, UK/Germany, 2004).

Students are required to be independent learners; investigating texts of their own choosing and deciding on the avenues of a topic that they would like to explore. For example, when studying Super Hero films pupils will be expected to study their own examples. Students of film studies should be creative thinkers; able to come up with original ideas and concepts. Students should also be enthusiastic participants in class discussion and practical workshops. At times, pupils may work in small groups and therefore required to possess good communication skills and the ability to operate within a team.

In Year 10 students have access to IT resources and the Editing studio to produce practical work. Students will have access to Editshare, in The Studio, where they can save large project files. Students use ‘portfolio’ type workbooks to present their planning and preparation. The expectation is that work is presented to a high standard and portfolios should show a clear sense of progression when studying a topic. Portfolios are marked regularly and targets set by both students and teaching staff. Controlled assessment tasks must be completed in school and will be retained by subject teachers. Students are also encouraged to use their school email accounts to complete homework tasks and plan with other students. In Year 11, film analysis lessons will be mainly classroom based, although pupils will have access to IT to complete independent research. In addition to texts studied in class, students are expected to study texts in their own time, keeping notes in their portfolios.

All students are provided with an assessment booklet that includes the GCSE grading criteria set out in bands. Staff will introduce students to the criteria at the start of each unit, with the emphasis on students achieving their target grade or above. On the submission of each assignment pupils will receive feedback from their teacher; indicating the criteria they have fulfilled and what they need to do to reach the next band. Class teachers will provide notional grades. There is also a section in the booklet for students to feed back and set action points that can be agreed with their class teacher.

7sistershomeschool.com

Homeschool Help and Curriculum

How to Use Movies as Literature Studies

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This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: How to Use Movies as Literature Studies. This post is running concurrently on the Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

Teens love movies and there are so many excellent movies out there. Why not make movies part of your homeschool high schoolers’ Language Arts credits?

Join Sabrina and Vicki for a lively discussion about one of Sabrina’s favorite topics. Sabrina is a movie buff from way back and is 7SistersHomeschool.com’s expert in turning good movies into good literature studies. (Get a comprehensive look at understanding high school literature credits in this Authoritative Guide post .)

How can that be legit?

First off, teens can’t just watch movies and count then as books. BUT they can count them as some of their books, IF they interact with the movies in a Language Arts way.

Many states and even countries, like Canada, include studying movies as part of Literature. They do this by including literature themes into the study of the movies.

How can you use movies as literature studies?

*One way is to: Read the book, then watch the movie, then compare and contrast. (Or listen to an audiobook, then watch the movie.)

Sabrina and Vicki point out they like Benedict Cumberbatch reading Kafka’s Metamorphosis or poetry of all kinds. (Check out Vicki’s Poetry Pinterest Board.)

You can use a movie along with literature analysis of the movie because:

• Movies are stories.
• Just like books are stories.
• Stories are stories.

Whether it is a movie or a book, there is a story being told.

Just listening to an audiobook is not cheating, watching a story being told in movie form isn’t cheating. As Sabrina says: If you use literary analysis skills to study the movie, it works just as well as studying a book.

This is a benefit for students who read slowly or have dyslexia. Sometimes reading a book takes all their energy and they have little left for literary analysis. In watching movies to practice literary analysis, they have more energy to learn these skills.

You can’t just do this willy-nilly and expect it to be a learning experience. Literary analysis is more than *what you liked about this movie*.

How can you turn a good movie into a good literary analysis experience?

Well, you could start with 7SistersHomeschool.com’s Cinema Studies for Literature Learning (since Sabrina created them and did the work for you).

Like all 7Sisters’ Literature Study Guides, Sabrina chooses one or two literary themes per movie and really delves into them. This gives homeschool high schoolers an wonderful opportunity to gain skill and comprehension about those themes. (This method differs from many programs that will try to pull all the literary themes out of a book or movie and totally overwhelm many high schoolers. Then, they hate the experience, rather than having learned from it.)

7Sisters’ Cinema Studies Guides never try to kill the movie! For a glimpse at what the study guides are like: Click here to view an excerpt from The Truman Show Cinema Study Guide .

Can movies really be used in education? Yes! Read this blog about using movies for educational purposes to learn more.

How to use 7Sisters’ Cinema Studies for Literature Learning Guides:

• Give an overview of the movie
• Give some background information about the author or story
• Explain the one or two themes to watch for in the movie
• They watch for the literature themes that they learned about in the introduction to the guide.
• Take some notes as you watch
• Wait a few days, watch the movies again
• They answer questions or writing prompts that help them learn the literature analysis topics that are important to that story
• First draft
• For students who struggle with writing, this can be done in a discussion format

Movies as  literature studies are not only good for students with learning struggles. Average teens and gifted teens pick up skills for making inferences and connections, as well as reenforcing literature themes when they learn from movies with a good study guide.

To help with this, 7Sisters’ Cinema Studies for Literature Learning includes special activities especially for interested or gifted teens to earn an Honors credit . (This looks good on a homeschool transcript, BTW.) Here’s a fun post with ways to use these movies and the book that goes with them .

When you set the goal for your homeschool high schoolers to gain some skills to understand good stories and why, they can apply these skills in other settings and make connections for further learning on their own. That’s what good literary analysis is about. That is why it is good to learn that skill in small chunks like we do with 7Sisters Cinema Studies for Literature Learning Guides.

Join us for this fun discussion. Your homeschool high schoolers are going to have a wonderful time when you learn how to use movies as literature studies. For more information on using movies as literature studies check out this HSHSP Episode.

You can download the complete list of 7Sisters Literature Study Guides at this link.

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FILM STUDY WORKSHEETS FOR DOCUMENTARIES

TeachWithMovies.org offers two film study worksheets designed to help teachers quickly create lesson plans based on documentary films; one is for movies that are primarily informational and the other for films designed to persuade the viewer on a matter of political or social significance.

The worksheets assist students in analyzing the documentary. They allow students to take notes during breaks while watching the movie or when the film is over. The prompts on the worksheets can be used to facilitate class discussions or form the basis for writing assignments.

The worksheets for documentaries will help students:

– determine premise, theme and intent;

– look at the structure and form of the presentation;

– summarize important facts;

– articulate important lessons learned from the film; and

– identify scenes, images, or sounds that appeal to the viewer.

TWM’s movie worksheets for documentaries are available through the following links:

• Worksheet for an Informational Documentary ;
• Worksheet for a Documentary that Seeks to Persuade on Issues of Political or Social Significance ; and
• Worksheet for the Aristotelian Modes of Persuasion in a Documentary Film: Appeals to Logos, Pathos, and Ethos .

INSTRUCTIONS FOR USING THE WORKSHEETS

The worksheets are designed to be copied on the front and back of one sheet of paper.

The prospect of having to respond to the prompts assures that students will pay attention to the film. Classes should read the worksheet prompts before the movie is shown to alert them to the questions they will be expected to answer. This will encourage the class to think about the movie and its content. Students should be discouraged from taking notes while the movie is playing. The best practice is to allow several three to five-minute breaks during the film for note taking and an additional five or ten minutes at the film’s end for students to complete their notes.

Suggested instructions for the worksheets are set out below. They can be changed as necessary or appropriate for particular classes.

Read the questions before you watch the film so that you will know what to look for in the movie. At breaks during the showing or at the film’s end, you will have an opportunity to make short notes in the spaces provided. If you make notes while the movie is playing, make sure that your note-taking doesn’t interfere with carefully watching the film. You do not need to make any notes on the worksheet but after the movie is over you will be required to fully respond to the questions.

Complete the assignment by answering each question in paragraph form. Be sure that your topic sentence uses keywords from the question. You may use more than one paragraph if necessary to provide a complete response.

The worksheets are designed to be used in their current form or to be edited, with questions modified or deleted and new prompts added, depending upon factors such as available time and the abilities of the class. If the substance of the film relates to a topic that has been explored in class or will be taught in the future, questions specific to that subject can be added to the worksheet. Classes that have studied techniques of the cinematic arts can be asked to apply that learning to the documentary. See TWM’s Cinematic and Theatrical Elements in Film – An Introduction . Classes that have studied the elements of persuasion can be asked specific questions about different persuasive techniques used in the movie.

There are many ways that TWM’s documentary film worksheets can enhance lesson plans. For example, worksheets can serve as homework assignments or the prompts can be split between homework and in-class work. Students can be permitted to respond to some of the prompts through media other than written paragraphs, such as posters, poetry, essays, music, or drawings. As an alternative to question #5, students can be tasked with writing a script or storyboarding a short film which presents an argument which is different than or opposed to a position taken by the film. Another variation is to separate students into groups of four or fewer, with each group being asked to give an oral presentation in response to a question on the worksheet.

THE BENEFITS OF USING GENERIC FILM STUDY WORKSHEETS

Many movie worksheets contain questions about specific scenes or details to test whether students have been paying attention. This ensures that students follow the film and don’t daydream or do homework. This type of worksheet is clearly beneficial when the film has educational value or is going to be used to drive assignments requiring the exercise of important skills. It’s certainly much better than simply putting the DVD in the player and letting the movie run.

Generic worksheet questions have the same advantages, however, they also ensure that students will use thinking skills of a higher level than those requiring students only to remember and regurgitate scenes or facts. General questions assure that students will understand the basic structure and elements of documentaries. For these reasons, TWM suggests that teachers use generic movie worksheets in their lesson plans. TWM provides movie worksheets that are specific to the film only in special circumstances. TWM has also developed generic movie worksheets designed to cover most types of fictional presentations. These worksheets stress the literary elements and devices of the story and engage higher level thinking skills. There are worksheets for:

• General Fiction ;
• Adaptations of Novels ;
• The Hero’s Journey ;
• Historical Fiction ; and
• Science Fiction .

These movie worksheets are designed to be modified for the abilities of the class, the curriculum goals of the teacher, the idiosyncrasies of the film, and specific literary, dramatic, or cinematic elements that the class has studied that may be evident from the movie.

6 Filmmaking Drills You Wish You Had in Film School

January 31, 2019 by Thomas Verdi

Okay, so I didn’t go to film school. I still might. Who knows.

But I have spoken with many filmmakers who’ve attended some of the best film schools in the world. NYU, USC, UCLA, Chapman, SCAD, Columbia…the list goes on. They all say they learned the most on set or in the post-production room, where they had the chance to apply the theory they learned in the classroom.

Whether they were gaffing, directing, or sound designing at a New York film school or other top film school, they all stated that working on set is when reality started to set in that life isn’t quite like a textbook.

This post won’t tell you the best camera for filmmaking on a budget (actually it will, right here: it’s the one you can get your hands on) or how to make an actual short film, but it will provide a framework of exercises that will allow you to develop and improve upon basic storytelling skills, honing your visual acuity and understanding of things. At The Film Fund, we’re big proponents of applying theory to practice. Learn as much and as often as you can, and then go do it. But start on a micro scale.

1. Watch a scene, and then transcribe it to screenplay format.

First off, watch as many movies as you can. Don’t stress yourself out, but dedicate yourself. There was a time in college when I would watch two movies every night, usually from 10:00 PM — 2:00 AM. Not including the movies I had to watch as part of my film studies homework. Don’t go nuts, but consume consume consume. It will help you identify the types of films you like, what makes a good story, and common technical aspects the films share.

That’s more of a long-term journey. For the short-term, here’s a drill: pick a scene from a movie you want. Not a terribly long one, maybe one that’s one to two minutes. For some reason, as I’m sure many of you know, one page of a screenplay generally translates to one minute on screen. Take this scene and focus on the action, dialogue, and general setting. Play and pause the scene if you have to. Take notes on everything you think is important.

Now, take these notes and start typing them into screenplay format, using the screenwriting resources here. If done correctly, you should end up with one to two pages. If it’s too long, try paring down your action or setting sentences. See our post here for some quick screenwriting tips.

Recreating a scene will help you visualize your own scenes when crafting your stories. Rebuilding someone’s vision will help you understand the visual framework they were able to put forth. If you really want to check yourself, Google search the name of the movie followed by the word “screenplay” to try and find it, and check to see if you got close. It won’t be identical, but you should have identified the big actions, settings, and dialogue.

Try this exercise with a variety of different kinds of scenes. Action-packed, dramatic, comedic, and painful scenes will and should all read differently on the page.

2. Break down this scene to its elements, and create a list of resources you would need to recreate it.

Take the scene and reduce it to its individual elements. You should do this both by watching the scene as well as reading the script you just wrote. On the page, circle everything that you might need someone’s help with creating. Props, sounds, characters, locations, vehicles, buildings, wardrobe.

Now create a separate list with two columns. In the left column, list out all of the things you’d need. On the right, list what you’d need to do to realize this element. If there’s a certain sound effect or type of music you’re not sure how to create on your own, match this element with a composer/sound designer. If there’s an elaborate medieval costume with which you don’t want to look amateurish, match this with a costume designer. See the example below:

Classical music

80s horror synth music

Detailed 18th century outfit

Francie (burlesque dancer, mid 70s)

Cozy fireplace

Online search

Costume designer

Backstage.com

My cousin’s living room

3. Record a friend answering nonsensical questions, and create a dramatic story from the audio.

This drill requires some gear. Since it’s a technical exercise, we recommend getting a pair of over-ear headphones, an external recording device, and a shotgun or lavalier microphone. In practice, especially for documentaries or ultra-low budget productions, any recording gear you can get your hands on will do the job, even if it’s a smartphone with a headphone mic plugged in. But this drill is specifically for audio recording, so try to get some gear either from a friend, library, school, or maybe a company like KitSplit .

Example of products (no affiliate links or sponsorship here):

• Zoom recorder
• Sony MDR headphones
• Rode NTG-2 shotgun microphone and pistol grip
• Any brand lavalier mic

You can use any brands you’d like. These are just a few examples I thought of quickly. All you really need is a recording device on which you can adjust the levels and gain (how sensitive the microphone is), a microphone, and a pair of headphones to monitor the sound.

Now that you’ve (hopefully) got a handle on your gear, write down five questions that will require detailed answers. They don’t have to be about anything meaningful, just things that will take someone a while to answer. You want questions that won’t require you to ask any type of follow-up questions so you can concentrate on and monitor the live audio the entire time. Print out these questions. Some examples:

• Tell me a story from college that made you see the world differently
• Why do you think some people are evil, some people are good, and some people just don’t care?
• Try and name fifteen different kinds of cheese, and then tell me your top three and why.
• What are your favorite condiments, and why do you think condiments exist in the world?

Grab a friend and record their answers. Make sure to get a separate track for room tone. Then import the audio into your editing software and see how it came out. Play around with cutting the audio into different sections and trimming out unnecessary content or pauses.

Make a story out of the nonsensical questions. Set it to music or stock footage. Go nuts. If you create something really cool, send it to us!

4. Look at stills from a particular movie, and identify the source of light.

When I bought some of my first lighting equipment packages and camera, I took some lighting and composition courses offered by the camera store. My instructor lit a lot of sets for food shows for big television networks. Needless to say, I got a crash course in professional set lighting.

While he primarily lit food, the guy did something at first that surprised me. He sat me down at a computer and started searching for stills from Breaking Bad. 

He then had me identify from where the sources of light eminated in each scene. Was there a light coming through a window, mimicing sunlight? Is there a practical light, a floor lamp maybe, in the middle of the scene, and are there any other lights? Is the lighting hard or soft? Are they using gels or colored LEDs to manipulate the color temperature? What are they trying to accomplish with this lighting?

In your house or apartment, light a similar scene to one you’ve found online. It can even be a simple interview setup. If you don’t have access to film or photography lighting, use practical lights such as lamps and ceiling lights to achieve an effect you want. Just make sure the bulbs are the same kind of temperature (incandescent vs. LED, for example).

5. Direct a real scene from a film you like.

Choose a monologue scene from a movie you like. One that isn’t super popular, with which the majority of people wouldn’t be familiar. Now take this scene and Google search it along with the word “monologue.” Recite it to yourself in the mirror, over and over until you are one with the monologue. You don’t need to memorize it. Just feel it, and understand it deeply and emotionally. Print out a few copies.

Now grab a friend. Preferably someone who doesn’t have a ton of acting experience. Working with non-actors will teach you patience, and it will force you to get creative with your direction.

Have the person recite the monologue to you once. Tell them it was good, but you want them to make a few tweaks to their performance to convey a different kind of emotion, Give them commands to try and tweak their performance into the kind of emotion you want to elicit. Depending on the mood of the material, these commands could be gentle, firm, or even angrily commanded. Everyone directs differently. Some like to mimic the lines for the actor themselves (I try to shy away from this method, or at lest keep it as a last resort just to showcase which part of the dialogue I want emphasized and let the actor bring their own style). Some directors like to ask actors questions about their lives, some like to compare the style they want to other movies.

Use whatever works for you in maintaining a trusting relationship with your actor. Directing is about building trust with your cast and crew so they can accomplish your vision. in this case, your vision is to recreate the performance in the original monologue.

6. Create a montage.

If you really want to try an advanced exercise, go back and film everything you’ve done in the first five drills. Make sure they’re all well-lit with clean audio, and that you’ve gotten performances that will help you tell a story.

Put all the audio and video footage into editing software.

Got an idea for a pitch but need funding to make your short film? Check out our film funding opportunities .

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